A PATIENT waiting for routine surgery at Coventry's Walsgrave Hospital says he is fed up with having his operation repeatedly cancelled.

Reg Clements, aged 72, from Stoneleigh Road, Baginton, was originally due to have a cyst removed in February.

But the procedure was cancelled because there were no beds available.

He claims the same thing has happened seven times, with a letter arriving about once a month telling him when the op should take place.

The hospital says there have been four cancellations - two on each side.

Mr Clements said: "You have to phone up the afternoon before to see if a bed is available and every time I have done that there hasn't been a bed.

"When you are on the phone they say if a bed does become available at the last minute they will ring between noon and 1pm on the day you are supposed to go in.

"So you wait in for that and still there's no bed."

Mr Clements admits he did cancel one appointment because he was ill.

He said: "I'm a reasonable man and at times I sympathise and think, well they must be up to their eyes in it, but I am getting fed up. You work yourself up each time about the operation and then get let down."

He said the cyst, which is in his groin area, was uncomfortable.

"I'm fairly active and it is making it more difficult for me to do the things I normally do."

Since his last missed date on August 28, the hospital has sent him another letter with an appointment for Wednesday, September 19.

David Loughton, chief executive of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, which runs the Walsgrave, said the hospital was doing everything it could to get Mr Clements's situation sorted out.

He said hospital records showed four cancellations, two by the hospital and two by Mr Clements.

Pressure from emergency admissions means when beds are tight, priority is given to urgent cases such as cancers.